Judge strikes down Utah's same-sex marriage ban as unconstitutional

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

SALT LAKE CITY – A federal judge struck down Utah's same-sex marriage ban Friday in a decision that brings a nationwide shift toward allowing gay marriage to a conservative state where the Mormon church has long been against it.

 

U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby issued a 53-page ruling Friday saying Utah's law passed by voters in 2004 violates gay and lesbian couples' rights to due process and equal protection under the 14th Amendment.

 

Shelby said the state failed to show that allowing same-sex marriages would affect opposite-sex marriages in any way.

 

"In the absence of such evidence, the State's unsupported fears and speculations are insufficient to justify the State's refusal to dignify the family relationships of its gay and lesbian citizens," Shelby wrote.

 

It was unclear what the immediate effect would be, because the state can still appeal. The Utah attorney general's office said it would issue a statement on the ruling later.

 

The ruling comes the same week New Mexico's highest court legalized gay marriage after declaring it unconstitutional to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples. A new law passed in Hawaii last month now allows gay couples to marry there.

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So now gays can have as many husbands and wives as they want? (I keed, I keed)

[Draggingtree]

Utah challenges “interim” same-sex marriages

 

By Lyle Denniston on Jul 16, 2014 at 11:03 pm

 

Arguing that a federal judge in Utah has attempted an end-run around the Supreme Court, top state officials in Utah urged the Court on Wednesday evening to spare the state from having to recognize now some 1,300 same-sex marriages performed last winter. This is the first of two new moves that Utah will be making in the Court to prevent such marriages in the state, at least until the Supreme Court has the last word on the controversy.

 

Within coming weeks, the same officials will be filing a petition asking the Court to answer the basic constitutional question of states’ power to forbid gay and lesbian marriages. The filing Wednesday was focused on a separate but related argument: that Utah should not have to officially recognize at this time the marriages that were performed during a window of legal opportunity at the end of last year. It referred to those as “interim marriages.”

http://www.scotusblog.com/2014/07/utah-challenges-interim-same-sex-marriages/

[Draggingtree]

Utah gets delay on same-sex marriages’ legality

 

By Lyle Denniston on Jul 18, 2014 at 5:11 pm

The Supreme Court on Friday afternoon spared the state of Utah, temporarily, from having to officially recognize some 1,300 same-sex marriages that were performed last winter. In atwo-sentence order, without noted dissent, the Justices put on hold a federal judge’s ruling in May requiring the state to validate those marriages.

 

This marked the second time the Justices have stepped in to put on hold a federal court ruling in favor of same-sex marriages in Utah. The delay ordered Friday will be in effect until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit rules on the state’s claim that those marriages did not have full legal status when performed. The state’s lawyers have called them “interim marriages.” The Tenth Circuit, however, has already given a strong hint that the state’s appeal is likely to fail.

http://www.scotusblog.com/2014/07/utah-gets-delay-on-same-sex-marriages-legality/